St Edward's A Level Guide 2026

BUSINESS

Edexcel

Business A Level helps pupils explore how modern businesses work. The course gives pupils an understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing businesses, and the skills necessary to run a successful organisation. Business is a good choice for pupils who want to develop their entrepreneurial skills, start their own business, or study the subject further at university. To access the course, pupils will usually have achieved at least a 5 in GCSE Maths and 7 in English or a humanity. Course structure Theme 1: Marketing and people Pupils learn the needs of customers, and how businesses can understand and respond to these different needs through a range of marketing strategies. Theme 2: Managing business activities This part of the course explores how businesses raise finance, plan their costs and expenditure, and manage resources in light of internal and external pressures. Theme 3: Business decisions and strategies Different businesses pursue different objectives for different reasons; pupils study how businesses achieve these objectives, especially focusing on business growth and change. Theme 4: Global business This section studies issues pertaining to operating in a globalised business environment, including the challenges of global manufacturing and marketing. Assessment structure The course is assessed across three exams at the end of the course. Each paper is two hours long and comprises 100 marks.

COMPONENT

Paper 1

Marketing, people and global businesses

Paper 2

Business activities, decisions and strategy

Paper 3

Investigating business in a competitive environment

All three papers involve a range of different responses, including extended open-response essay questions.

ST EDWARD’S OXFORD

12